Informal Requirements Document

Earth Information Exchange Requirements

1. The Earth Information Exchange (“Exchange”) Vision 1.1 The Exchange shall serve as the Federation portal and knowledge center, where Earth science data, information, knowledge, and associated services can be discovered, located, and used to their maximum potential, and are cataloged under a common framework. 1.2 The Exchange shall connect data providers and users in a robust marketplace, offering capabilities for transactions, marketing, advertising, and distributed search. 1.3 The Exchange shall provide educational and tutorial material for the use of Federation products in support of environmental decision-making and global sustainability. 1.4 The Exchange shall be a forum for translating information and knowledge about the Earth into scientifically sound decision-making by planners, policymakers, and those charged with responding to immediate and long-term environmental challenges. 1.5 The Exchange shall serve the entire Federation community encompassing: i) all Federation member types; ii) all Federation product and service types (including value-added products and services such as raw data, maps, skills, and educational content); and iii) all Federation domain communities.

2. Data Services 2.1 The Exchange shall support data discovery through the following search criteria: i) temporal bounds; ii) spatial bounds; iii) parameter; iv) spatial/temporal resolution; v) region names; vi) features and events; vii) themes; viii) Google-type free text. 2.2 The Exchange shall support access to 4-D science data products in scientific data formats (e.g., netCDF and HDF-EOS) by enabling users to: i) visualize candidate data products; ii) download data; iii) follow links to data sources. 2.3 The Exchange shall enable access to data through commonly used protocols such as: i) WMS/WCS/WFS; ii) OPeNDAP 2.4 The Exchange shall enable users to perform non-traditional searches such as for hot products and value-added, virtual data products 2.5 The Exchange shall offer subscription services to notify users when specified data products become available 2.6 The Exchange shall offer multiple tools for accessing and manipulating on-line georeferenced data, such as Geospatial One Stop and Earth-Sun Gateway 2.7 The Exchange shall support data access through machine-to-machine communications via Web Service standards

3. Informational Services 3.1 The Exchange shall support searches for experts in scientific, application, and educational skill areas 3.2 The Exchange shall offer a context-sensitive Help facility 3.3 The Exchange shall provide user access to metadata, including product lineage 3.4 The Exchange will provide access to query tools associated with metadata catalogs 3.5 The Exchange shall provide mechanisms for providers to enter & edit their metadata records 3.6 The Exchange shall provide access to decision support tools and will offer assistance to facilitate the infusion of partner products into environmental decision support systems 3.7 The Exchange shall provide access to citations 3.8 The Exchange shall enable users to register and subsequently authenticate with a single sign-on to gain access to a personalized home page. For providers, this page shall include a list of metadata submitted. 3.9 The Exchange shall provide mechanisms for harvesting metadata from multiple sources and applying reasoning to eliminate redundant records 3.10 The Exchange shall make available its metadata resources to other clearinghouses (such as the GCMD) for harvesting 3.11 The Exchange shall enable users to browse through knowledge domain spaces 3.12 The Exchange shall support the use of 3rd party and community-specific metadata (such as for educational applications)

4. Community Services 4.1 The Exchange shall promote the formation and evolution of user communities and online collaborations through wikis and other collaborative tools. 4.2 The Exchange shall provide a forum for users to rate the quality of products and services 4.3 The Exchange shall provide links to other portals, including those maintained by partner members

5. Infrastructure 5.1 The Exchange shall maintain a persistent registry that enables all Federation products and services to be inventoried 5.2 The Exchange registry shall track the resources through any changes in technology, information schemas, and scientific understanding over the perpetual existence of the long-term archive. 5.3 The Exchange registry shall be expandable and updated as new content become available 5.4 The Exchange registry shall harvest or query other metadata stores so that providers are not required to submit the same metadata information to more than one source. 5.5 The Exchange shall maintain a set of classifications to express the parameters of Federation products and services, which is semantically rich enough for information providers to specify their exact offerings and for consumers to interactively browse or drill down to obtain their exact information needs 5.6 The Exchange classifications shall include community-accepted standard measures of data quality 5.7 The Exchange shall maintain a portal that provides access to the registry and its contents 5.8 The Exchange technology shall be open source, wherever practical 5.9 The Exchange shall provide security for sensitive information of its members 5.10 The Exchange shall maintain metrics that characterize users, user patterns, and products and service accesses, while satisfying user privacy concerns 5.11 The Exchange portal shall be compliant with Government accessibility standards 5.12 The Exchange portal shall comply with community data and metadata standards (such as FGDC, Geospatial One-Stop, or ISO 19115). 5.13 The Exchange infrastructure shall provide the machinery for day-to-day conduct of the Federation’s business and Front Office activities

6. Data and Service Providers (“Providers”) 6.1 Providers shall submit high quality, accurate, exhaustive, and complete metadata records for their products and services to a registry such as GCMD, ECHO, Geospatial One-Stop, or the Federation. 6.2 Providers shall ensure that their on-line data products and services available at all times

7. Federation Management (“Federation”) 7.1 The Federation shall activate and support “Working Groups” (or clusters) of members that share common interests in NASA Areas of National Priority, IEOS Societal Benefit Areas, Science Focus Areas, or technology to expand and coordinate synergistic activities. 7.2 The Federation shall develop its persistent registry and populate it with a comprehensive inventory 7.3 The Federation shall assist providers in submitting metadata, where needed 7.4 The Federation shall support the branding of its products and services 7.5 The Federation shall provide management oversight for Exchange activities through existing Committees, including: i) technology oversight by the Information Technology and Interoperability Committee; ii) oversight of general content and categories by the Products and Services Committee; iii) oversight of educational content by the Education Committee; iv) e-commerce oversight by the Commercial Development Committee; v) outreach oversight by the Community Engagement Committee.

8. Working Groups/Clusters 8.1 Working Groups shall identify key products and services in their application area 8.2 Working Groups shall populate and refine a rich classification of terms in their application area, in conjunction with other communities and national agencies, that is consistent with other classification terms within the Exchange 8.3 Working groups shall delegate a representative who serves as a liaison between the Group and the Federation 8.4 Working Groups shall follow any guidelines established for Exchange Working Groups

9. Data Users 9.1 Exchange users shall complete a registration process to use value-added services that require registration 9.2 Exchange users shall rate the quality and usability of resources available from the Exchange